Present day practices of bale handling involve the use of automated bale wagons to pick up a plurality of bales of crop material that have been deposited in a field, and forming them into a block shaped stack for storage on or adjacent the field or for transport to a remote location. One bale wagon of this type, which has achieved wide spread commercial acceptance, is the three table wagon illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,848,127, issued on Aug. 19, 1958 in the name of Gordon E. Grey. Other bale wagons of the same general type utilizing Varying approaches to the same problem are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,370,796, issued Feb. 1, 1983 in the name of Leon W. Wilson, No. 4,273,488, issued Jun. 16, 1981 in the name of Amos G. Hill et al, and No. 3,942,651, issued Mar. 9, 1976 in the name of Allen B. Neely, Jr.
The abovementioned Grey bale wagon has a first table for receiving bales from a bale loader or pickup assembly. The first table accumulates a predetermined number of bales, for example two, in a transverse row. An adjacent second table successively receives rows of bales from the first table and accumulates a plurality of such rows, for example four, five or six rows. This plurality of rows is commonly referred to as a tier of bales. The third table, or load bed, successively receives the tiers from the second table and accumulates a plurality of such tiers, for example seven, to form a stack of bales in a block shaped configuration. Once a stack of this nature has been formed on the third table, it may be either transported or unloaded. In the case of the latter, the load bed is pivoted to an upright position for depositing the stack on the ground with the first tier of bales that was formed on the second table becoming the lowermost tier in contact with the ground and the last formed tier being the uppermost or top tier of the stack.
In order to enhance the stability of stacks of bales, it is desirable to provide what is commonly referred to as tie tiers within the stack. A tie tier has individual bales selectively arranged to overlap two bales in adjacent tiers. Formation of a tie tier can be accomplished by pivoting certain bales through utilization of a mechanism of the type illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,814, issued Aug. 6, 1968, also in the name of Gordon E. Grey. The general principle illustrated in this patent has been incorporated into present day commercial models of three table type bale wagons. Another example of a mechanism for forming a tie tier is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,652, issued Mar. 8, 1976 in the name of L. Dennis Butler, et al. Regardless of the mechanism, when bales are pivoted to provide different patterns in tie tiers, it is essential to maintain the periphery of the tier configuration as consistent as possible for the purposes of stack stability. Thus, even when the outer surfaces of the bales on the rectangular edge of the tier conform to the prescribed profile, there are internal spaces between the surfaces of adjacent bales as dictated by various tie patterns and varying bale dimensions.
Other improvements featured in three table bale wagons are illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,927,771, issued Dec. 23, 1975 in the name of Lee D. Butler, et al, and No. 4,203,695, issued May 20, 1980 in the name of Edward J. Wynn, et al. In both patents bale wagons systems are shown that facilitate the automatic formation of block shaped stacks. More particularly, these patents disclose electronic and mechanical type control systems, respectively, whereby bales may be placed selectively on edge or flat on the second table to automatically configure tie patterns in the proper position as the stack is being formed. Electronic or mechanical memory systems are used to define a plurality of bale arrays representing various tier patterns, including tie tiers, as discussed above, as well as standard tiers in which the long dimension of all the bales in the tier are aligned.
Regardless of the system used, as mentioned above all tiers are commonly formed with all the outside surfaces of the bales in the tier aligned vertically with adjacent tiers in the final stack arrangement. One exception to this in the past has been the need to form a standard bottom tier without the twine being in contact with the ground, regardless of the position of the outer edges of the bales in the tier. This can result in the outside surfaces along one edge of the bottom tier being out of alignment with the surfaces of the next adjacent tier.
To keep the periphery of the tier configuration as consistent as possible is a desirable attribute as mentioned above. This is accomplished in some bale wagons by manipulating the bales on the first table as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,792, issued May 27, 1980 in the name of Edward J. Wynn, et al. It is also possible to transversely shift bales after they have been deposited on the second table as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,231, issued May 9, 1978 in the name of Randall E. Zipser, et al. Again, while accomplishing this consistent tier profile the resulting bale configuration creates internal spaces between the bales.
Consequently, even though stacks formed in the above manner accomplish desirable stability and appearance characteristics, there is an inherent disadvantage due to resulting internal spacing between bale surfaces yielding vertical voids in the stack. This problem caused during tier formation is compounded due to innate variations in bale length caused by fluxuating crop conditions, baler tolerances, etc. Such voids give rise ultimately to losses due to weather, i.e., inner bale surface areas adjacent spaces between bales in the stack become accessible to moisture which leads to spoilage.